Viet World Kitchen

Trout Simmered with Orange Peel and Caramel Sauce (Ca Kho Cam)

In Vietnam, fish simmered in caramel sauce is everyday soul food. The dark, bittersweet, savory fish is a great with rice. Depending on the cook and her/his resources, such a fish kho ("kaw") can be super intensely flavored and salty so as to get people to eat more rice than fish.

You can simmer most any kind of fish, big or small. On my last visit to my folks, my mom and dad served us a trout kho with strips of orange peel. It was full of citrus fragrance and not at all bitter, given the fact that the white pith is kept as part of the mix.

My husband liked it so much he suggested we make it when we got home. Our neighbor has a tangelo tree so I used one of the fruits. But you can feature orange like my folks. If you use store bought fruit, do try to buy an organic one or remember to scrub the wax of the fruit before using it.

If you have caramel sauce in your pantry, this is a great way to fix trout, which by the way, is among the good sustainable fish to consume in the United States. Caramel sauce is a stealth Vietnamese staple that's something worth having on hand.

Fish kho is great for advance preparation as it actually tastes better after sitting around for a couple of days. It ages, I suppose.

Trout and Orange Peel Simmered in Caramel Sauce
Ca Kho Cam

Serves 4 to 6 along with 2 or 3 other dishes

 1 (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pound) whole gutted trout, trimmed of fins and cut into 1-inch steaks (keep or discard the head)
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons Caramel Sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
Peel of 1/2 orange or tangelo, cut into 1/4-inch-wide, 2-inch-long strips
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 small yellow onion, thinly sliced

1. In a saucepan, combine the fish with the peppercorns, salt, caramel sauce and fish sauce, coating the fish well. Set aside for 15 minutes to marinate.

2. Add the peel, oil, and onion to the saucepan. Gently stir thing so that these seasonings are well distributed.

3. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to simmer gently, and cook for 10 minutes to allow the flavors to combine. Uncover, add water to just cover the fish. Replace the lid and simmer for 30 minutes. Uncover and adjust the heat, as necessary, to maintain a gentle simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the liquid level has reduced by half.

4. Turn off the heat, taste, and make any flavor adjustments before serving. When making in advance, partially cover with the lid, and allow to cool completely before refrigerating. Reheat over medium or medium-low heat, adding a little water to facilitate things, as necessary. Enjoy with lots of rice.

Vietnamese Red Rice

There are certain dishes that people ask me about and Vietnamese red rice is one of them. It's a dish that's become popular in a number of Vietnamese restaurants abroad -- a diaspora dish, if you will. It's not part of the Vietnamese repertoire in the sense of being a classic dish that says, "I'm Vietnamese!" On the other hand, what makes something a classic? Perhaps, a particular food becomes a classic if over time, enough cooks make it and enough people like it.

There's a red sticky rice called xoi gac in traditional Vietnamese cooking where sweet rice is coated in the red-orange pulp of the gac fruit (Mormordica cochinensis), a spiky volleyball-sized fruit that's related to bitter melon. That slightly sweet, rich xoi gac sticky rice is associated with celebratory occasions, like weddings, because its reddish color symbolizes prosperity and good luck. Usually, the rice is paired with roasted meats like crispy pork or duck.

I imagine that Vietnamese red rice is a take on xoi gac, only it's made with long-grain rice and is essentially a glorified fried rice. The difference is that the rice is cooked in butter and lots of garlic. Vietnamese restaurants, like their Chinese brethen, have lots of rice around so why not make fried rice?

I recently purchased a copy of the Red Lantern Vietnamese restaurant cookbook from Australia and there was the red rice recipe. I gave it a whirl , found it to be a tad greasy and bland, and adapted the recipe here for you to try.

For those of you who love this rice, let me know if it comes close to what you've enjoyed in Vietnamese restaurants. And if you try the recipe, do tell us all about your personal tweaks!

Red Rice
Com Do

Like all good fried rice, cook your rice on the firm side (use less water than usual) so that the grains retain their individuality. Then let the rice dry out in the refrigerator. If you have leftover rice, here's a great way to use it up! The rice will literally fry without soaking up tons of fat. The less moisture the better for fried rice, lest it becomes soggy. That's why the tomato paste is a champ and giving the rice great color and a touch of sweet flavor. As for the Maggi Seasoning Sauce . . . I like it for some savory depth.   

Pair the rice with wok seared (shaking) beef (thit bo luc lac) or grilled or roasted meats. Something rich here is nice -- something you'd eat with knife and fork. I served mine with a pan-seared pork chop seasoned with shallot, garlic, garam masala, fish sauce, and kecap manis.   

Serves 3 to 4

4 cups cooked long-grain rice
3 tablespoons butter
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Scant 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Maggi Seasoning Sauce or light (regular) soy sauce

1. Put the rice on a baking sheet and refrigerate it, uncovered, for 8 to 24 hours, until it is dry enough for you to gently crumble in your hands. Midway through, turn the rice to ensure even drying. Before cooking, return the rice to room temperature.

2. To make the rice, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of butter. Once the frothing subsides, add the garlic, and cook, stirring frequently for about 2 minutes, until the garlic no longer smells raw and turning blond. Add the rice and stir to combine. Add the tomato paste and stir to coat the rice and turn it red. Increase the heat slightly and cook, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes, until the rice is heated through.

Sprinkle in the salt and Maggi Seasoning Sauce and stir to combine well. For extra richness, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Continue to gently fry the rice for another 1 to 2 minutes, to sear in the flavors. Remove from the heat, taste and add extra salt, if necessary. Transfer to a bowl and serve immediately.

Blurring Borders 33 Years Later

April 30 marked the 33rd anniversary of the fall of Saigon, which sent hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees abroad to create the kind of diaspora situation that this blog tries to capture.

I marked the anniversary by cooking a Viet meal and then watching the gut-wrenching Bolinao 52 documentary that aired on our local KTEH public TV station. My husband and I went through lots of tissues, wiping away tears and sniffles,  as we learned about the horrific journey that one woman endured to get to the U.S.  and her drive to find closure decades later. Let's just say the  "52" in the title refers to the number of people who survived.

The documentary underscored how fortunate my family was to be among the very fortunate to been airlifted from Vietnam in April 1975. We were and continue to be grateful.

These days, whenever I return to Vietnam, I think about what my life may have been like had we not been able to leave. For sure, it would have been difficult for many years but much better these days. Life is relatively stable and good in Vietnam, particularly in the cities, and there's so much communication between here and there. It's a transnational situation in which borders are blurred.

For example, last week, I was contacted by a reporter from Thanh Nien (which means "Youth"), a major national newspaper outlet in Vietnam. Van Anh wanted an story about my work, what I thought of the state of Vietnamese food in the United States and Vietnam, and about my cookbook,  Into the Vietnamese Kitchen.

The interview process was nice but what I was impressed about was her worldly professionalism, English writing skills, and resourceful pluck. Van Anh could have been a Vietnamese American for all I knew. She uses a gmail account. Maybe she's an American Vietnamese? There's a new one for ya!

The article was published yesterday in Thanh Nien's Kieu Bao (overseas) news section. You can read it online IF you read Vietnamese. Sorry.

In today's San Jose Mercury News, which despite being decimated by recent layoffs, still has terrific, timely  coverage of Vietnamese topics, there was a piece about how Silicon Valley Vietnamese Americans (called Viet Kieu) are making Saigon into a "Little San Jose" with their hi-tech start ups.  (The Merc has a way of blocking access after a few days so access this soon or do a search for John Boudreau's 5/18/08 piece.)

So much has changed in the past 33 years and given Vietnamese people's hyper entrepreneurial spirit, there's lots more to come.

Saigon Food Souvenirs

Whenever I visit Vietnam, I start out light with just one slightly full suitcase and invariably, come home with an extra bag crammed with items that I figure are  hard to find abroad. (Or maybe I was just impulse buying?!)  On this last trip, I was able to ask my sister Tasha to fill one of her extra suitcases (she's a well schooled, prepared traveler) with my junk. She flew home after Saigon whereas I went on to other Asian countries.

Though I've been home for weeks, it wasn't till last week that my sister handed over my Saigon souvenir stash. Along with a bunch of the latest cookbooks, there were items like these:

From top left to right:

• Black peppercorns from Phu Quoc island are a little sweet compared to the Tellicherry peppercorns. The Phu Quoc island peppercorns are slightly reddish in color and quite lovely. Keep them in your freezer. White ones are available too. Buy ones that are legit, not merely bleached black peppercorns, which are cheaper but not as good as the real thing. Ask to taste one when you buy.
• Banh trang re are lacy, net-like wrappers that you can use for deep-fried cha gio rolls. They soak up a ton of oil but are very crisp. There's no need to soak them first. I got a 6-pack and refrigerate them for up to 6 months.
• Giant chopsticks used for fluffing up rice. These were found at the Phu Nhuan wet market and you'd mistaken them for spatulas. They're about 1 1/4 inches wide at the top. The handmade pair cost 7,000 VN dong, or about 55 cents! I splurged and got a pair for my mom, who is a hard woman to shop for but she was delighted by the gift.
• Banh trang bo bia dau xanh are a new item to me. I believe they're like Chinese spring roll wrappers or lumpia wrappers. They're made with wheat flour and tapioca flour and according to the packaging do not require water to get them rolling. They're for "rolling the fried meat roll" per the packaging. In Vietnamese it says that they're for cha gio xop (fried imperial rolls); xop means porous, so that doesn't quite make sense to me. Anyone familiar with these wrappers?
• Dried bamboo shoot is what those funky brown things are. The vendor at Cho Lon market told me to buy the premium kind (about $8 USD a kilo) because they're not stinky and don't require days of soaking. Now I have 2 kilos (4.4 pounds) in my pantry. That's lots of bamboo.
  

A few bottles of Cholimex hot sauce got broken in the luggage and Tasha had to throw them out. Too bad you can't bring fish sauce back. If they sold high quality nuoc mam in the duty free shops at the airport, I'd snap them up!

When you're traveling, what kinds of food souvenirs do you look for?

To securely package things up, I always bring a supply of plastic zip-top bags and bubble wrap. Any tips from you?

Fish Sauce Taste Off

When I was in Singapore last month, food expert Christopher Tan (foodfella.com) and I had a long conversation about different kinds of fish sauces. I'd tasted it in a number of dishes in Singapore and was surprised to see it so present in the food. Yes, the beloved Viet condiment is used in many cuisines, and it's just not in that of Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.  I mentioned that Knorr has been buying and bottling tons of nuoc mam fish sauce from Phu Quoc island off the coast of Vietnam -- where the best fish sauce is made. (Okay, I'm biased!) Chris, who has a well-tuned palate and amazing passion for food, said he was preparing for a fish sauce tasting in Singapore and would get some.

In preparation for the event, Chris asked me to decipher this fish sauce label from a Knorr bottle. The label basically touts it's purity and well-balanced flavors -- a lot like a fine wine. It also says to users that it's just for dipping sauces and table uses. It's too good to be cooked with. The price is rather low -- 12,000 Vietnamese Dong (75 cents), which is probably for one of the small tableside-sized bottles. Click on the thumbnail image to view a larger one.

So how did the Vietnamese fish sauce stand up the others? Chris just sent these remarks and  results:

China - Swee Huat Yu Lu from Shantou
Very salty, otherwise unremarkable. A bland fish sauce more suited to cooking or adjusting the seasoning of a sauce/gravy with, or for light dips.

The Philippines - Florence Patis
Salty flavour, though aroma has slight sweetness. Very simple taste. Very short aftertaste has a slight flatness from sodium benzoate.

Thailand - Tiparos nam pla
Both sweet and salty in the initial taste - it contains added sugar - but overall much better balanced than the above two sauces, with stronger and more rounded anchovy notes.

Vietnam - Thanh Ha Chanh Hieu Phu Quoc nuoc mam, 40 Dam
Easily the most complex of all the sauces we tasted. Beautiful colour. The salt hits you first, but then the fish flavours come forward. Rich and smooth feel in the mouth.

Vietnam - Knorr Nuoc Mam Cham
A lot of people liked this. Like a sweeter version of the Thanh Ha, and to me even oilier on the lips. Long aftertaste. Would be peerless as a dipping sauce base.

Myanmar - Fish Sauce (label's all in Burmese, but there's a prawn-shaped logo on it, so maybe prawn brand?)
Very interesting - earthy, mushroomy notes in its aroma, and a murky cola colour, but the taste, though salty, was quite mild, with some of the funky, leaf-mould nuances that you taste in some Burmese dishes. Would work well in braised dishes containing mushrooms, or in claypot rice, I'd wager.

Korea - Sandlance Fish Aekjeot (label is totally in Korean, so don't know the brand name)
Meant primarily for making kimchi, apparently. This had good colour and was very smooth, but it smelt sulphurous, like pungent salted-egg yolks, and hence was almost universally face-wrinkling.

I've done personal tastings myself but not for a crowd. Sounds like fun! If any of you are tasting new kinds of fish sauce, let us know!

Wok-Seared "Shaking" Beef - Thit Bo Luc Lac

Some Vietnamese foods have been poorly translated into English, and thit bo luc lac is one of them. Thit bo means beef and luc lac refers to how you have to shake the skillet or wok to cook the small pieces of meat. For years, my husband expected the meat to quiver and I assured him that the dish wasn't all that dramatic. It's had its usefulness at crossover Vietnamese restaurant menus where it's presented as the meaty option for steak lovers. Let's just say it's become downright popular, despite it not being part of many Vietnamese home cook's repertoire. It's actually a celebratory dish.

In general, Vietnamese people, like many other Asian people, don't eat large piece of meat unless they're cut into small pieces. We just traditionally didn't (and people still don't) have enough meat for things like roast beef. And, if you slice anything up, it will feed people on biblical proportions! In the case of thit bo luc lac, named after the back and forth shaking of the skillet as you sear the cubes of beef, was likely a clever dish invented to deal with tough cuts of steak.  Many Vietnamese restaurants in America prepare this dish with super tender, expensive fillet but it's rather hard to find such a splendid preparation in Vietnam. And the beef you get in Vietnam is likely to be tough and from an animal that's walked plenty of miles and eaten lots of grass, not grain. The meat will have some good chew and flavor. It's not for those with weak teeth.

Abroad we have lots of good tender, flavorful  beef for tasty renditions of this dish without having to spend tons of money. When I prepare "shaking" beef, I use my favorite inexpensive cut of beef -- trip tip (bottom sirloin, cullotte steak) and have the butcher select marbly pieces. At my local grocery store, Shopper's Corner, I typically pay about$6/pound for the steaks. Once home, I trim off most of the excess fat before cutting the beef into cubes.

With its peppery bite, the watercress is a great contrast to the beef. Coating the watercress in a light dressing and then putting the hot beef over the top, the cress wilts ever so slightly and the beef juices and dressing blend together into a tangy sauce that's great spooned over rice. This is a pretty easy dish to whip up from readily available ingredients.

Wok-seared "Shaking" Beef
Thit Bo Luc Lac

Use both the light and dark soy sauces if you want a little extra deep color. Feel free to dress up the final platter with some tomato wedges.

1 1/4 pound tri-tip (bottom sirloin/culotte) steaks

Marinade:
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon regular (light) soy sauce, or 2 teaspoons regular (light) and 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

Dressing:
1 shallot, thinly sliced (1/4 cup total)
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 or 2 pinches salt
3 to 5 cracks black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons water

4 cups watercress, use only the tender leafy parts
2 tablespoon canola or peanut oil

1. Trim excess fat from the steaks and then cut each into 3/4-inch cubes. In a bowl, combine the pepper, sugar, garlic, oyster sauce, fish sauce and soy sauce. Add the beef and toss well to coat. Set aside to marinade for 2o minutes or up to 2 hours.

2. For the dressing, put the shallot in a mesh strainer and rinse under water for about 10 seconds to reduce some of the harshness. In large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, salt, pepper, vinegar and water. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the shallot. Put the watercress on top but hold off on tossing.

3. Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add the beef and spread it out in one layer. Cook in batches, if necessary. Let the beef sear for about 1 minute, before shaking the wok or skillet to sear another side. Cook for another 30 seconds or so and shake. Cook the beef for about 4 minutes total, until nicely browned and medium rare.

In between shakes, toss the watercress and transfer onto a platter or serving dish. When the beef is done, pile the beef on to of the watercress and serve immediately with lots of rice.